Not only did the 30 Seconds to Mars front man shed the weight, but he also fully embraced and adapted to his character—an HIV-positive transgendered woman named Rayon—by cross-dressing in public while working on the film!

“Yeah, I did [walk the streets in drag] a lot and—as pretty a woman as I thought I made—I didn’t fool anyone,” he told ShortList magazine.

He continued, “I went to the supermarket, mainly to stare at food because I wasn’t eating, and I got lots of looks. Some were just like, ‘Wait, is that… that guy from films? Dressed as a woman?’ But I also got a look that was like, ‘I don’t know who or what that is, but I don’t f*cking like it.’ A judgment, a condemnation.”